The blog of the radio announcer for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, the Midwest League affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Categorizing

This entry is for the new wave stats readers and for those who may want to learn more about these new metrics.

I’ll let Jim Breen over at Bernie’s Crew set it up for you, since he did all of the hard work – you know, math & stuff – in this post to categorize pitchers in the Brewers Minor League system.

Without delving into hardcore statistical analysis, I found that the
strikeout rate was the only major factor that changed between minor
league levels. The average and median strikeout rate decreased as one
went up the prospect ladder. Walk and groundball rates, though, seemed
to remain remarkably steady.

Therefore, I opted to alter the average strikeout rate depending on
the level, but kept the walk rate and groundball averages similar to
the big league averages. Take these numbers with a grain of salt, as
they are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but here are
the averages I used per level:

K/9 — 8.00 K/9 in A, 7.50 K/9 in High-A and AA, and 6.75 K/9 in AAA

BB/9 — 3.00 BB/9

GB% — 46%

And here are the results for Brewers prospects that threw at least
70 innings in 2010 (and remember, these should be used as a jumping off
point for discussion, not as a hard-and-fast rule for good/bad
pitchers).

So keep that in mind when you go over to the link and see one of your favorite Rattlers in a spot lower than what you thought he might be on a list like this.

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